History
Intent
At St. Peter’s CEP we believe that the teaching of History gives pupils an understanding of the past through learning about human achievements and experiences, therefore we follow the National Curriculum for History. In this, our aim is to encouraged pupils to develop a chronological framework of the World and British History. That will allow them to understand the process of change, to see how we arrived ‘here’, and to help make sense of the present. To help facility the exploration into the past, six key concepts are focused on and revisited throughout our History programme of study from Year R to Year 6 at St Peter’s, and include:
To instil our pupils’ curiosity to become historians, a variety of different sources - pictures, stories, writing and artefacts – are used for children to investigate these concepts in their different units of study. We also seek to enrich children's real-life experiences through educational visits, visitors, experimentation, exploration and discovery.
Implementation
History is taught on a weekly basis at St Peter’s using an enquiry based approach. ‘Big’ questions are posed for each unit of study and children look to investigate in-depth different lines of enquiry to find answers to their ‘big’ question. Across the year at St Peter’s, our children will study a range of different History topics, focusing on both Substantive and Disciplinary knowledge pathways for history. In KS1, three history topics are taught in-depth for a short term, while in KS2 children study History during one long term and one short term throughout the year on a key historical period in human existence.
While children will focus on Substantive knowledge content through studying historical information about specific units of study in each year group, we are also committed to developing our pupils’ disciplinary knowledge at being historians. Therefore, to facilitate the progression of learning, a comprehensive disciplinary knowledge progression document for History has been created for teacher and pupils that focus on five key pathways, and include:
|
Chronological understanding |
Depth of historical understanding |
Interpretation of history |
Historical enquiry |
Organise and communicate findings |
In each year group, children will continually revisit prior learning from year to year but also from lesson to lesson. Knowledge organisers are referred to within the unit of study with key questions, text, content and key vocabulary that children will encounter as they explore their unit of study in history. Additionally, enrichment opportunities are sought for when exploring our various topics and include such things as class visits and school visitors.
Inclusion:
At St. Peter’s all pupils have the opportunity to develop their history knowledge and understanding. The school promotes equal opportunities and fairness of distribution of history resources. Teachers are made aware of children in their class who have a specific learning need and actions are put in place to ensure that barriers to learning are minimised. Whether that is 1:1 support, pre-teaching of key concepts or adaptations to the learning environment, every effort it made to allow for all children to gain in their understanding and knowledge needed for historical enquiry.
History Knowledge Progression document
Autumn Term History Knowledge Organisers
Year 3 - Stone Age to Iron Age
Year 5 - Anglo-Saxons and Scots
Inclusion
At St. Peter’s all pupils have the opportunity to develop their history knowledge and understanding. The school promotes equal opportunities and fairness of distribution of history resources. Teachers are made aware of children in their class who have a specific learning need and actions are put in place to ensure that barriers to learning are minimised. Whether that is 1:1 support, pre-teaching of key concepts or adaptations to the learning environment, every effort it made to allow for all children to gain in their understanding and knowledge needed for historical enquiry.
Useful Links
National Geographic Kids - Discover History
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